If I recall correctly, the question that started this unfortunate thread running was: how to divide a number by 2 without using the division operator. Now, whilst that is perfectly obvious to anyone familiar with binary arithmetic, I've known several programmers that have made reasonable living as productive if not gifted programmers without ever knowing anything about binary math.

If you've made your career as a COBOL programmer and never had occasion to learn any other language--and many many have--you may well never have had the need to know anything about bit twiddling.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

When putting a smiley right before a closing parenthesis, do you:

Use two parentheses: (Like this: :) )
Use one parenthesis: (Like this: :)
Reverse direction of the smiley: (Like this: (: )
Use angle/square brackets instead of parentheses
Use C-style commenting to set the smiley off from the closing parenthesis
Make the smiley a dunce: (:>
I disapprove of emoticons
Other